Focus Home Interactive’s 2019-20 fiscal year report shows that the publisher increased its revenue by 13 per cent, to €142.8 million.
This was supported by both new franchises, such as the releases of World War Z, Greedfall and A Plague Tale: Innocence in the first half of the year, as well as its back catalogue, which saw a strong performance throughout the year.
Revenue from new releases dropped 10 per cent from 2018-19 to €85.8 million, though this was counteracted by a massive increase in back-catalogue revenue, which skyrocketed 83 per cent to €57 million.
Focus points to the COVID-19 lockdown for impacting its main markets during the final weeks of the quarter, but argues that it has adapted well to the crisis. Development continues on its future titles, and most of the releases dates have not been impacted. The publisher also points out that they implemented working from home before it was a legal requirement to do so.
They were also boosted by Focus’ digital strategy, allowing them to adapt to the COVID-19 crisis and saw a significant increase in digital sales, which accounted for 82% of revenues for the year, compared to 66% in 2018-19.
Jurgen Goeldner, Chairman of the Management Board, declared: “The year 2019-20 marked a significant milestone in our journey to our 2022 objectives. During the year, we demonstrated our ability to change scale with major commercial successes and the generation of a recurring revenue stream thanks to the strength of our back-catalogue. We also invested heavily to fuel our future developments. I thank our teams for their continued performance and excellent work.”
Meanwhile, John Bert, COO, added: “We are really proud to have once again been able to establish strong new brands like World War Z, A Plague Tale and Greedfall in an extremely competitive market. Even if 2020-21 is still a year of transition, the recent successes underline our confidence for the years to come and validate our choices, both for the studio partners and our publishing line. We therefore maintain our guidance for the two coming fiscal years.”
